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Music executive who faked his death pleads guilty
Court Watch News |
2009/05/06 10:28
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A music executive has pleaded guilty to faking his own death and pretending to be his killer.
WSMV-TV reports 62-year-old William Grothe pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to defraud his life insurance company and creating the false impression of his own death.
Grothe disappeared Nov. 19. His car was found in Nashville near the Cumberland River boat ramp, and his wallet and cap were nearby.
Assistant District Attorney Rob McGuire says Grothe took out $1 million in life insurance policies.
His attorney, Richard Tennent, says Grothe, an attorney who worked for a Music Row company that collects royalties for songwriters, was living as a homeless man in Arizona.
Tennent said Grothe has been diagnosed with bipolar disease and depression. |
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CSI commander facing lawsuit in Neb. murder case
Headline Topics |
2009/04/28 08:45
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| Less than a week after being indicted for allegedly tampering with evidence in a homicide investigation, a crime scene investigator is being sued in federal court by one of the men who was wrongfully charged in the double-murder case.pOn Sunday, Nicholas Sampson filed paperwork to add David Kofoed, commander of the Douglas County CSI unit, and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to a 2007 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against the Nebraska State Patrol and the Cass County Sheriff's Office./ppThe amendment says Kofoed violated Sampson's constitutional rights by planting a speck of blood in a car Sampson had driven./ppSampson spent five months in jail after being wrongfully charged in the deaths of Wayne and Sharmon Stock. The couple were found slain in their Cass County farmhouse on April 17, 2006. Both had been shot in the head at close range with a shotgun./ppLaw enforcement involved with the Stock investigation insists that the case against Nick Sampson remains an open case, said Sampson's attorney, Maren Chaloupka. I find that ironic, given that the only person currently under indictment is one of their own./ppKofoed, 52, was charged Wednesday in Cass County Court with evidence tampering and was indicted a day later on four federal charges, including falsifying records./ppHis attorney, Steve Lefler, has said Kofoed may have made some mistakes in the case, but they did not rise to the level of criminal misconduct./p |
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U.S. top court upholds TV profanity crackdown
Court Watch News |
2009/04/28 08:45
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| The Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday a U.S. government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show.span id=midArticle_byline/spanspan id=midArticle_0/spanpIn its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching. /p |
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Counsel: Disgraced NYC lawyer pleads guilty in May
Lawyer News |
2009/04/27 08:46
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| pAn attorney for a prominent New York City lawyer accused in a $700 million fraud says his client will plead guilty next month to all the charges he faces./ppDefense attorney Gerald Shargel said Monday his client Marc Dreier (DRY'-ur) will enter the plea May 11 to securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges./ppShargel says Dreier wants to enter the plea to demonstrate his acceptance of responsibility and his profound remorse./ppUntil December, Dreier had led a law firm with 250 attorneys and celebrity clients. He was arrested after hedge funds complained he was stealing from them./ppProsecutors say the 58-year-old could face a maximum of 30 years to life in prison./p |
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Alabama senator's DUI court date now set for May
Topics |
2009/04/27 08:42
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State Senate Majority Leader Zeb Little's first court hearing on driving under the influence and other charges has been canceled.
p
The Cullman Democrat had originally been scheduled to be in Jefferson County District Court on Tuesday. Defense attorney Mark White said Monday the hearing was to determine if Little had an attorney, and the court has already been notified that he does./ppLittle's next court date is May 18, but that could be changed because that's the final day of the 2009 legislative session./ppLittle was arrested April 3 in Jefferson County. He was charged with drunken driving, failure to yield for an emergency vehicle, having an open container of alcohol in the car and having an expired driver's license./p |
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Texas case before high court to test voting rights
Headline Topics |
2009/04/26 08:40
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The community of Canyon Creek was ranchland rich with limestone and cedar trees when Jim Crow held sway in the South. The first house wasn't built until the late 1980s and not even a hint of discrimination attaches to this little slice in suburbia.
p
President Barack Obama won more than 48 percent of the vote in November in this overwhelmingly white community northwest of the state capital./ppYet Canyon Creek, the heart of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, is the site of a major Supreme Court battle over the federal government's often used and most effective tool in preventing voting discrimination against minorities./ppThe utility district's elected five-person board manages a local park and pays down bond debt. Because it is in Texas, the board is covered by a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires approval from the Justice Department before any changes can be made in how elections are conducted./ppThat requirement applies to all or parts of 16 states, mostly in the South, with a history of preventing blacks, Hispanics and other minorities from voting./ppThe utility district is challenging that section of the law, which Congress extended in 2006 for 25 years. The Obama administration is defending it./ppThe Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1965, opened the polls to millions of black Americans. The law has been the most important and transformative civil rights act in our country's history, said John Payton, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund./ppThe federal government has used the provision, known as Section 5, to stop things that would have perverted our democracy, Payton said. His group represents Texans and organizations seeking to preserve the section./ppOn the other side are the utility district, an array of conservative legal groups and some Southern Republicans./p |
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Civil beating case against Snoop Dogg begins
Court Watch News |
2009/04/25 08:47
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| A man suing Snoop Dogg for millions told a jury Friday that the euphoria of being near one of his idols quickly turned to terror during a 2005 concert when he was savagely beaten.pRichard Monroe Jr. claims the rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, hit him with a brass-knuckle microphone after he jumped onstage and put his hand on the performer's shoulder./ppBroadus sat a few feet away as Monroe described waking up naked, robbed, and in a pool of blood after the beatdown by other performers and the rapper's security detail. A videotape of the incident that occurred at the White River Amphitheater near Seattle was also shown to jurors Friday./ppBroadus' attorneys said the video doesn't show the blow to the back of the head that Monroe claims the rapper delivered, nor evidence that the rapper should be forced to pay any damages./ppThey told jurors during the trial's opening moments Friday that Broadus' security guards had mere seconds to react when Monroe — who stands 6-feet-3 inches tall and weighs nearly 300 pounds — came on stage unexpectedly./p |
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